Question Marks
by Pale Treasures
Summary: After the birth of Eugene and Rapunzel's first child, for some mysterious reason, no one is able to say what the sex of the baby is. A bewildered Eugene finds out. One shot.


**Question Marks**

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing, I'm just borrowing the characters.

**Rating: **K+

**Summary: **After the birth of Eugene and Rapunzel's first child, for some mysterious reason, no one is able to say what the sex of the baby is. A bewildered Eugene finds out.

**Author's Note:** It's rushed and probably full of mistakes (and the premise is unlikely), which I apologize for. But hopefully it's funny, which is what I intended when I wrote it.

* * *

I'm not quite sure how long I stood there, in one of the mile long hallways of the palace just outside Rapunzel's rooms, hoping for news, biting my nails and wincing at the horribly lengthy screaming periods. After a while, I gave up on trying to pace the aforementioned hallway, because that would only have tired me out all the more and I wanted to stay sharp and focused. Besides, I wasn't going to let anyone accuse me of being the one pitifully collapsing out of exhaustion when Rapunzel was the one doing all the hard work.

Whoa. A baby. I still hadn't gotten used to _that_.

Did I spend a whole night huddled there? Quite possibly. I can't say now, everything's kind of a blur. It turns out that sleep deprivation _is_ a serious thing, even when you're not engaged in giving birth to the heir of the kingdom. Also, I found out that worrying yourself sick for a long period of time eventually saps your strength and energy and you just turn into an insensible ball of human flesh after a while. So, even if you try to toughen up, at a certain point you're just beat. Blame Mother Nature for that.

That was me, early on the next day. The hallway and its surroundings had suddenly turned silent, but instead of being relieved, I only worried more. Yeah, being a married man and a father-to-be – and a prince, for Pete's sake! – had turned me into the occasional worrywart. Don't blame me. It's hard trying to go back to being irresponsible and cavalier about everything when there's so much sitting on your shoulders, and you'd hate – more than anything – disappointing the one person who made that all possible.

I stumbled to my feet and looked around blearily. I couldn't help feeling that I'd missed something. What was it? What was going on? How was Rapunzel doing? What was happening to her right now?

One of her ladies-in-waiting, a dumpy little matronly woman who could always instill the fear of God in me by doing less than blinking (what? Don't smirk at me. She _can_ be scary!), came into the hall and stopped before me. Her face was grave and I saw a barely concealed look of contempt in her features as she stared up at me – and she had to struggle with that, because she was so tiny. Huh. Apparently not even the happy occasion had made her change her mind about me even a little bit. Well, I'd have plenty of time to try and change that, since we were going to be stuck together for a while.

"So?" I demanded anxiously, patting myself on the back for curbing the urge to seize her by the front of her gown and shake some words out of her. "How is she? Is she okay? Is the baby okay?"

"The child is well and healthy," she declared, only then showing the ghost of a smile, "and the princess is well also."

It felt like I hadn't been breathing all this time, because it was like a huge weight had been lifted off my chest. I felt like I could have floated just then. Ignoring my qualms – and certainly hers –, I gathered her up into my arms until her feet left the ground and squeezed her hard. That woman and I had never stood too close together, since she seemed to think I was contagious and I didn't do much to disprove that, but now I was squeezing a ton of little folds of fat in my arms as though she was the person I loved most in this world.

"Rapunzel is fine, really? Are you sure? I thought—" I remembered the screaming early on and I think my expression changed. It was hard to forget how unfamiliar it had been, how terrifying. Hers changed too, to my awe, and actually _softened_.

"She is very well, almost as though she underwent nothing at all. She is ready to receive you, Your Royal Highness."

Wow. _Your Royal Highness._ We were really going places.

"And what is it?" I asked excitedly, taking hold of her again and actually shaking her this time, "The baby, I mean?"

To my perplexity, her face assumed a look of confused doubt.

"We… don't know."

"What do you mean, you don't know?" My face split into a painful grin, and my arm jutted out, narrowly missing her, as I pumped my fist in the air. "It's a boy, right? I _knew_ it! I _knew_ it would be!"

All the softness – and possibly any beginnings of liking – vanished from the little woman's face. That contemptuous expression she showed awhile ago was back and entirely unmistakable at this point.

"We don't know if it's a boy. We can't be sure of the sex yet."

Okay, now this was just silly. "How can you not know?" I demanded in frustration. "How hard can it be to check? I mean, I'm not a royal physician and certainly no midwife, but even _I_ can do that."

She stared at me frostily. "It is not a matter of not knowing how or being unable to _check_," she corrected me, with a disdainful sniff, "but it has not been possible to ascertain the sex of the child. The princess refused to let anyone take it from her, either to clean it or swaddle it; she has been holding the baby almost from the minute it was born and refused to give it up." Given her loyalty to Rapunzel, I didn't think she meant that disapprovingly.

Then, a crystalline, almost sing-songy voice, light with excitement and joy, "Eugene!"

"Fine, _I'll_ find out, and I'll do that right now," I decided, and rushed into Rapunzel's room, beginning to seriously doubt the intelligence and abilities of these palace folk. The maids, the midwife and the doctor looked up at me in surprise, then vanished from the room at a word from Rapunzel, who was barely able to contain – no, scratch that, she _really_ couldn't contain – her excitement.

I drew near her and gently touched the matted dark hair plastered to her forehead. She seemed to have forgotten all that completely.

"Are you okay?" I whispered. "I was so worried."

She grinned up at me and caressed my cheek, and instinctively I leaned into it, more thankful than ever that nothing had happened to her. I was only beginning to realize how easily it could have. Then, and only then, did I notice the little bundle in her arms, wrapped in a pristine white lace shawl.

"Is that—" I breathed.

She nodded joyously and her face, when she looked up at me again, was so awash with bliss that it was like I had never really looked at her until now – had never known how beautiful she could look. "Our baby, Eugene." She glanced down at the little bundle rapturously. "Isn't he just the _cutest_ little thing you've _ever_ seen?"

"So it's a boy?" My face began to twist into that ear-splitting grin again; my fist struggled not to pump into the air once more.

She rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "I don't know. That's just something I said so that I didn't have to call the baby _it_."

"Right, about that. The sergeant told me no one was able to find out the sex. What gives?"

"Eugene, don't call Genevieve that," Rapunzel reproached me, but she soon smiled again. "That's right. No one knows yet, not even me. I just couldn't bear to let them take the baby. As soon as I heard him cry, I just wanted to hold him and never let go." A hint of secretive excitement glinted in her huge emerald eyes. "Let's find out together?"

I dimly felt my instant, excited nod. Before I could do anything else to prepare myself, Rapunzel began to carefully unwrap the baby, and my eyes met perfectly unblemished, creamy skin, in spite of its being coated with the last remains of blood and flakes of white stuff, and then…

"Oh, Eugene!" Rapunzel breathed. "It's a girl!"

It was a girl. I stared at her, befuddled, enraptured, disbelieving, and it felt like something was dying inside of me, retreating, never to return, and being instead replaced… by this. By _her_.

"It's a girl," I breathed back. "A little girl." Carefully, I held out a finger and gently touched her teeny hand. And she moved, her hand brushing mine, and then taking hold of my finger with a determination that I couldn't tell myself was anything other than her already knowing who I was.

I forgot all about her maybe being a boy. Had I really thought that? Had I even ever wished for a boy? No, the truth is I don't think I ever did. I had been too excited, too dazed, for the past nine months, to do anything else but wonder and hope. I had never really wished for anything. And now, looking at my daughter, even if I had…

That would be the first thing I would take back. Because I couldn't imagine, not for a _second_, not now and not in a million years, wanting anything or anyone that wasn't exactly her.


End file.
